Every Home Has A Story To Tell

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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_01: Hello, I'm Mario Tonogusi with Edmonton's podcast on Canada's podcast network. Joining me today is David Tiefenbach, who is owner of Atta Boy property inspections.
[00:17] SPEAKER_01: Thanks David for joining us today.
[00:19] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes, absolutely. You're welcome.
[00:21] SPEAKER_01: All right, super. Let's start with just an explanation of what Atta Boy is and what it does.
[00:28] SPEAKER_00: Atta Boy property inspections.
[00:31] SPEAKER_00: Well, we're a home inspection business. We do mostly residential.
[00:36] SPEAKER_00: We've stayed a little bit out of the commercial side of it for now, but we do everything from rooftop to sewer line for for the buyers looking and also pre listing inspections for any sellers out there.
[00:50] SPEAKER_00: All right, super. How did the start? How did the company begin?
[00:53] SPEAKER_00: Well, my background is in plumbing HVAC gas fitting for the last 26 years and I needed to find something different.
[01:04] SPEAKER_00: I had enough of the plumbing days after 26 years of that and I was always told that I would be a good property inspector.
[01:12] SPEAKER_00: So I actually had a friend at the time who owned the property inspection business and we were actually in the same B&I chapter together, which is a business networking chapter.
[01:22] SPEAKER_00: And you know, he always said to me that, you know, you should think about one day about being a property inspector.
[01:28] SPEAKER_00: So I took his advice and went and got my license and started that.
[01:34] SPEAKER_00: All right, super. And tell me where the name comes from.
[01:38] SPEAKER_00: The name out of boy came from, you know what? I honestly, I didn't know my first name until I was about three or four years old.
[01:46] SPEAKER_00: My mom and dad always called me out of boy.
[01:49] SPEAKER_00: And it was a name that kind of stuck with me through a long time and coming up with that name to name this property inspection business.
[02:01] SPEAKER_00: It just made so much sense to use it.
[02:04] SPEAKER_01: So, okay, super. Now, you know, you must see like on a daily basis some weird stuff out there, right? And in the homes, anything come to mind as some of the weirdest stuff you've seen in a house during an inspection inspection.
[02:22] SPEAKER_00: You know, there's so many different things in it's, you know, obviously we find some of the sad things during four closures.
[02:34] SPEAKER_00: Some of the lifestyles that people have left like maybe renters or anything like that.
[02:40] SPEAKER_00: But there's some things that the home you do it kind of renovation guys.
[02:47] SPEAKER_00: It's always fun to see what's going to be around the corner for sure.
[02:51] SPEAKER_00: You know, we see sometimes exhaust systems that are just dumping into other rooms.
[02:57] SPEAKER_00: You know, electrical lots electrical issues lots of people like to play with their own electrical, which is kind of surprising.
[03:07] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, electrical and plumbing are two biggest things that we find that are pretty, pretty crazy stuff.
[03:12] SPEAKER_01: Okay, couple of things about what you're headed here with the company.
[03:18] SPEAKER_01: And I understand you're looking for franchise opportunities for people.
[03:22] SPEAKER_01: Yes.
[03:23] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[03:24] SPEAKER_00: You know, since I was in the trades, you know, for last 26 years and I would, you know, I wanted to find something different for sure.
[03:31] SPEAKER_00: And I'm out there right now looking for people that are like me who wanted to, you know, in their late 30s, mid 40s that want to look at maybe doing something else and have an, you know, a really good lifestyle doing it.
[03:48] SPEAKER_00: We have set up out of boy property inspections to franchise and we want to concentrate more in the Western Canada side first.
[03:55] SPEAKER_00: We sold our first one here in Edmonton only about four or five weeks ago.
[04:00] SPEAKER_00: And we have one pending right now in Vancouver. So we're off to the second one to get started. And yeah, no, we have, you know, a fantastic opportunity for for anyone really with a really good work ethic to get started for sure.
[04:17] SPEAKER_01: Okay, and the other thing I wanted to ask you about is you seem to have a bit of a, a, a tug towards youth in trades.
[04:29] SPEAKER_01: Tell me why you think that's important and what you're doing about that.
[04:34] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, next year, we're going to start taking some applications and, and this is all free, of course. And this is, you know, unbiased.
[04:44] SPEAKER_00: It's, I'm looking to get youth involved, younger guys. And we're going to start taking applications from ages anywhere is from 15 to 19.
[04:56] SPEAKER_00: Guys that maybe guys or girls that are looking to get into trades.
[05:01] SPEAKER_00: This is going to give them a perfect opportunity to come and look and shadow me doing property inspections and to learn about residential home construction.
[05:11] SPEAKER_00: We've also set up where they can go spend some time with plumbers, liqueuritions, framers, insulators, you know, during the summer holidays to see if any kind of peak their interest on any kind of trade that they may like to get involved in.
[05:29] SPEAKER_00: And then also they have the home inspection side to training with us if they want to for sure.
[05:35] SPEAKER_01: All right, super. Let's talk a little bit about yourself. David and your background. You're from small town near Sus Regina, right?
[05:46] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[05:48] SPEAKER_00: Just East Irrigina, a small town called Belgonis to scratch one. I grew up there and my grandparents had a farm just south east of there.
[06:00] SPEAKER_00: You know what? I grew up on the farm. I mean, that's, that's what we did. You know, a lot of families went out to the lake and my family went out to the farm. That was kind of where we went. And, you know, we, I remember the farm life.
[06:16] SPEAKER_00: The harvest season very vividly. It was one of my favorite times of the year for sure. And, you know, I grew up hauling grain at the age of 10. I think I was hauling grain already at the age of 10 and and on the combine and stuff like that.
[06:31] SPEAKER_00: So I remember my grandpa sent me to get to go get the mail. And this was about a 15 minute drive from the farm. And I was, I took the 1960 Pontiac for a ride and went to the post office to get the mail.
[06:47] SPEAKER_00: And on my way back, I was actually pulled over by the RCMP officer. And I was probably a couple of miles still from the farm.
[06:57] SPEAKER_00: And he walked up to the car and tapped on the window and rolled down the window. And he looked at me and he kind of smiled and he says, how old are you? And I said 12.
[07:08] SPEAKER_00: He says, how are you doing driving? And I said, well, we'll grandpa sent me to go get the mail. And he kind of said, you know, the reason why I pulled you over was just to look at the car.
[07:20] SPEAKER_00: And I said, well, I'm only a couple of miles away from the farm. I said, why don't you come and meet my grandpa? He says, well, I'll be following you just make sure we get there safe.
[07:30] SPEAKER_00: So we pulled into the yard and grandpa came out of the barn and and you know and and walk the police officer around to show all his other cars. And that was the end of that story. So yeah.
[07:43] SPEAKER_00: Interesting. I remember that so perfectly. It was just such a funny moment.
[07:47] SPEAKER_01: No kidding. What did you think you learned from growing up on the farm that what kind of lessons do you think you learn that have suited well for you in your future career and business?
[08:05] SPEAKER_00: I think it's the work ethic. I mean, my grandpa was a workaholic. My dad was a workaholic. You know, it was just hard work. And we were never afraid of hard work.
[08:21] SPEAKER_00: And it's just about the family too, you know, the family spending time working hard.
[08:29] SPEAKER_00: It was just a lifestyle that, you know, I don't know if it's you see it too often too much anymore, but the farm life was something special and something that I never forget and that I take credit for actually doing and being involved in for sure.
[08:46] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and the same question really about growing up in Saskatchewan.
[08:51] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely. You know, growing up in Saskatchewan, we're all farmers really.
[08:57] SPEAKER_00: To be honest with you, if you lived in a small town, we are all part of some sort of farming life.
[09:05] SPEAKER_00: Small town, you know, a small group of friends that you grow up together and just that lifestyle of everything of just the family kind of environment.
[09:19] SPEAKER_00: It was it was actually really nice.
[09:21] SPEAKER_01: Okay, super. So what got you into the plumbing and gas fitting business?
[09:27] SPEAKER_00: My dad was a, my dad was a tinsmith, a Lennox dealer, each fat guy and he ran a plumbing heating business in Regina.
[09:39] SPEAKER_00: So when I finished high school, I went right into the plumbing trade and, you know, and just started with him.
[09:47] SPEAKER_00: He ended up retiring in about 2004, moved to BC.
[09:54] SPEAKER_00: And my mom and my sisters were already in Calgary.
[09:57] SPEAKER_00: And so I decided not to stay in Regina at that time and moved, actually ended up moving to Calgary first in 2005 and started with a plumbing company there for a little while.
[10:09] SPEAKER_00: They had some management problems here in Edmonton. So they actually moved me into Edmonton three months after and I started their office here for them.
[10:19] SPEAKER_00: And then in 2006, I started my own plumbing business.
[10:23] SPEAKER_00: What was it called?
[10:24] SPEAKER_00: The Piper plumbing.
[10:26] SPEAKER_00: And so how long did you have that?
[10:29] SPEAKER_00: I had that up until about 20, about early 2018. I sold it off to a couple employees.
[10:36] SPEAKER_00: And then I was kind of in and out of the cannabis industry or looking to get into it a little bit.
[10:43] SPEAKER_00: And it's just never went my way.
[10:47] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, and then that's when I looked at doing my license for property inspections.
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: So once I got that completed, I started out of boy property inspections kind of late 2019 and never really did anything with it until 2020.
[11:04] SPEAKER_00: And then that's when it kind of took off.
[11:06] SPEAKER_01: So I just want to backtrack for a second in terms of the plumbing business.
[11:12] SPEAKER_01: Why, why did you feel at that time? It was time to sell and get out of that.
[11:18] SPEAKER_00: Well, I had a couple of employees that were interested in carrying on with it.
[11:22] SPEAKER_00: And I was kind of like I was it was just not in my heart anymore.
[11:26] SPEAKER_00: I needed at that time to find something different.
[11:29] SPEAKER_00: And that's when my friend who owned at that time, a property inspection business, you know, him and I had a really good talk about how to get into the business and stuff like that.
[11:39] SPEAKER_00: So you kind of pushed me and nudged me a little bit to get at it. So it's a, you know, I'm very grateful and thankful for that for for him to do that for sure.
[11:49] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Can you talk a little bit about as you mentioned your brief for a into cannabis. What happened there?
[11:57] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, the cannabis industry was it was still out of a gray area at that time.
[12:03] SPEAKER_00: And it was something that you know, I thought if I could get in the door running, it would really take off to kind of be the first one.
[12:12] SPEAKER_00: But I know the federal government made a pretty hard stop on me, which was kind of sad and too bad because it looked like it was actually going to be pretty promising.
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: But yeah, no, it was it was put at it was put at a red light pretty quick.
[12:31] SPEAKER_00: So I'm sorry, why is that?
[12:34] SPEAKER_00: It was just it was too early. It was too early. None of the regulations and all the rules and anything like that was kind of put in place yet.
[12:44] SPEAKER_01: Okay. So when when you look at being an entrepreneur, you know, what advice would you give people who, you know, maybe want to be entrepreneurs, what advice would you give them?
[13:01] SPEAKER_00: Well, I think you, I think being an entrepreneur, you're born being an entrepreneur. I think you should know if you're going to be an entrepreneur before you even become into that.
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: But I mean, it's always something that's, there's always a little bit of a sacrifice. It's a lifestyle for sure.
[13:23] SPEAKER_00: It's, you have to love yourself. You have to know exactly who you are and you have to find your passion before you get into involved in anything.
[13:34] SPEAKER_00: You know, I, I had a passion of home construction.
[13:39] SPEAKER_00: You know, my background in the plumbing HVAC gas fitting kind of fit that passion.
[13:45] SPEAKER_00: And, and my customer service, my plumbing company was mostly plumbing service.
[13:50] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I had all that kind of set up and ready to go.
[13:55] SPEAKER_00: And, and, you know, and then the passion of it of helping helping people, you know, go out there and, and find their home or their forever home or people that are selling their homes.
[14:07] SPEAKER_00: It was just something that just clicked for me and, and it's just something that I'm so grateful for and something that I'm just, I can't wake up fast enough every morning to get out there and go do inspections.
[14:19] SPEAKER_00: That's just what I love to do now.
[14:21] SPEAKER_01: What, what has been the toughest challenge or challenges you've, you've faced in being an entrepreneur.
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: Well, it's, it's a roller coaster life. It can definitely be ups and downs for sure. And I think, you know, the, the things like the economies can always play a part of that for different, for different entrepreneurs.
[14:43] SPEAKER_00: I think that, you know, I think off the beginning, it's always really difficult to get all your systems and procedures in place.
[14:53] SPEAKER_00: And I think once you do that and you start, you know, out hiring the other person is when things really start to, you know, it's like almost like pushing a snowball down the mountain.
[15:06] SPEAKER_00: Once those systems are in play and you start hiring the right people for the right positions, it becomes, it becomes fun, actually.
[15:15] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, and the training part of it and everything and the culture that you build around your business is so important.
[15:23] SPEAKER_01: So when, you know, through your entrepreneurial journey, did you have any mentors along the way or did you have any, I don't know, examples of entrepreneurs that you kind of learned from or even books that you read.
[15:41] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, absolutely.
[15:42] SPEAKER_00: You know, the atomic habits, you know, Darren Hardy was always somebody all his books. I'm, you know, I, I'm usually up in the mornings at about 4.35 am.
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: The very first thing I do is actually have my coffee and do a lot of reading. And Darren Hardy was always a lot of his books.
[16:05] SPEAKER_00: There's Tony Robinson. You know, there's lots of guys that I can actually can't think of off of the top of my head, but having a mentor, I think, is one of the most important things to have to be honest with you.
[16:19] SPEAKER_00: I think surrounding yourself with business like minded people, people that are actually more successful than you are, because I strongly believe the people that you hang out with is who you become.
[16:32] SPEAKER_00: And my mentor was someone who is, you know, who's been a business coach who's sold franchises, who's been in the, you know, the corporate side of things.
[16:45] SPEAKER_00: And having somebody beside you that you can actually have those conversations with is key to success for sure. Absolutely.
[16:53] SPEAKER_01: Okay, what about doing business in Edmonton? What's that like?
[16:59] SPEAKER_00: You know what I, when I'm first moved into Edmonton, I was a little skeptical for sure. I mean, it was going into a larger city from Regina.
[17:08] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it took a little bit of time to get, you know, to meet some people and stuff like that. But, you know, doing business here was it's fantastic.
[17:18] SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, the growth of the city is amazing. I love the downtown life here.
[17:27] SPEAKER_00: I've been in Edmontonia now for, you know, since 2006. And I think it's a fantastic place to do business.
[17:35] SPEAKER_01: Okay, million dollar question though. Football.
[17:41] SPEAKER_00: I look so ripe writers.
[17:44] SPEAKER_00: You know what, being born in a sketch one farmer, you all that, that green rider blood will always be in my body for sure.
[17:54] SPEAKER_00: It's, yeah, that writer nation in Regina is something special and it's something that I actually miss.
[18:00] SPEAKER_00: But that is one thing that's well will never go away.
[18:04] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, being also from that Eastern part of Saskatchewan, you could also be a blue bomber fan, I guess.
[18:12] SPEAKER_00: Good to do. Yeah, that's true.
[18:15] SPEAKER_01: So let's talk a little bit about personal side of things, David.
[18:20] SPEAKER_01: You know, obviously, everyone knows that being an entrepreneur, it's basically a 24 seven job.
[18:27] SPEAKER_01: It's, you know, you're either doing it or thinking about your business.
[18:32] SPEAKER_01: But what do you do outside of that to get that quote, quote, work like balance?
[18:38] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's, you know, that's something that I'm working on. I mean, it's, it's really busy.
[18:43] SPEAKER_00: You know, starting, starting this business and then getting into the franchise side of it.
[18:49] SPEAKER_00: But no, I find time. I love going to the mountains. I mean, I love seeing Jasper and BAMF.
[18:55] SPEAKER_00: I do a little bit of downhill skiing. I love the hiking.
[19:02] SPEAKER_00: And just spending time, you know, I'm like I said, I was an early morning riser.
[19:06] SPEAKER_00: So I like going to the gym. You can find me always running stairs in the river valley.
[19:12] SPEAKER_00: Edmonton downtown is beautiful walking around and stuff like that in the river valley.
[19:16] SPEAKER_00: So, you know what, I try to get out as much as possible to, to just down, downgrade a little bit and spend time for myself, for sure.
[19:26] SPEAKER_01: Right now I, in a bio that you sent me, you talked about a dream being a,
[19:32] SPEAKER_01: yeah, being an acreage. Maybe can you explain that and what you'd like.
[19:37] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a, that's a goal for me. That's becoming a reality now. I'm actually just starting to look for the land.
[19:44] SPEAKER_00: I'm just, I really love going just, just east of Sherwood Park kind of by that, our draw scenario.
[19:51] SPEAKER_00: I have some land that have picked out and some blueprint drawings in my head of a home that I want to build.
[19:59] SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking at doing all that early next year. So what will you have about there?
[20:04] SPEAKER_00: You know what, I've always pictured a couple of Clydesdale's walking around roaming around the rich and definitely an outdoor pool and outdoor kitchen and maybe a brick old oven for pizzas and stuff like that.
[20:19] SPEAKER_00: So it was, I want to build myself a little bit of an oasis out there for sure.
[20:24] SPEAKER_01: All right, so, and many ways back to your roots.
[20:28] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely. You know what? As much as I hated cutting grass when I was a kid, I think there's always a lot of grass to cut on the acres for sure.
[20:37] SPEAKER_00: I might need, I might, I might need to get a couple of goats with those Clydesdale's so now.
[20:42] SPEAKER_01: Now, I just as a personal aside and to our viewers here, I met David several weeks ago on my wife and I came to Edmonton for anniversary and downtown Edmonton.
[21:00] SPEAKER_01: And we met David sitting at the bar at at Bodega restaurant, a great restaurant down there.
[21:07] SPEAKER_01: So I'm kind of curious of your lifestyle. You know, you you you live in the heart of a downtown core to go up to an acreage outside the city.
[21:19] SPEAKER_01: How was that transition going to take place and more from a mental perspective?
[21:26] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know what? It's I think that farm life that acreage style has always really been there for me.
[21:33] SPEAKER_00: But I do love the downtown. I really do. I we have some fantastic restaurants down here that as you know, down one one, one, a four street there, the where we met.
[21:44] SPEAKER_00: I think I'm always going to be traveling back into downtown to hit them up for sure. So, super.
[21:50] SPEAKER_01: Now, if you don't mind, David, one thing I you shared with my wife and I that evening was your family's connection with the church.
[22:01] SPEAKER_01: And can you maybe talk a little bit about that?
[22:05] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, we just outside of Moulmarts Saskatchewan is where the homestead is and we have great, great grandparents who homesteaded there actually built the church there back.
[22:17] SPEAKER_00: And I believe it was 1905. It was all hand built hand painted through the family and it's a family own church and it's you know something that I'm pretty proud of.
[22:32] SPEAKER_00: I have a lot of different cousins and that gets still get married out there lots of baptisms.
[22:39] SPEAKER_00: We have a priest that's right in Moulmarts Saskatchewan that comes out to there to help us with all the services and stuff like that.
[22:46] SPEAKER_00: We spend any time that I go back to Regina, I drive out there, obviously, to see the homestead and and to visit the church.
[22:54] SPEAKER_00: You know, it's been in the family for many generations and it's going to continue to be and it's just something that we're pretty proud of.
[23:06] SPEAKER_01: All right, super and one last thing David, if people are interested in franchise opportunities with Attaboy, how did they reach out to you?
[23:17] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they can go right to the website and click. It's basically a click the franchise opportunity page.
[23:24] SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll get a form that comes straight to me that I'll go to the franchise team and from there we'll reach out to you with a discovery call.
[23:31] SPEAKER_01: All right, super well, thanks very much for joining us today, David.
[23:36] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, who's a pleasure. Thank you.
[23:38] SPEAKER_01: All right, super, that was David Tiefenbach, who is owner of the Attaboy property inspections in Edmonton.
[23:45] SPEAKER_01: My name is Mario Tonagusie. I'm with Edmonton's podcast on Canada's podcast network. Thanks for joining us today.